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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26252119">ATLA Shorts</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Periphyton/pseuds/Periphyton'>Periphyton</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Compliant, Established Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Gen, Missing Scene, Mostly Canon Compliant, Not In Chronological Order, One Shot Collection, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 03:08:04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,464</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26252119</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Periphyton/pseuds/Periphyton</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Short stories, quiet moments, snappy bits of dialogue, coming of age reflections, and missing scenes. Mostly canon compliant.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Wild Turtleducks</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Zuko has a quiet moment by himself, before trying to find some food when he and Iroh become fugitives of the Fire Nation.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>If Zuko didn’t walk away from his uncle at that exact moment, he would have fireblasted him. Probably. Maybe he should have anyway, for talking about making tea with some random flower that was probably poisonous in the middle of fucking nowhere by some shit Fire colony in the Earth Kingdom. But he was hungry, tired, and the half inch of new hair on his head was itching and driving him crazy. He never thought he could miss the <i>Wani</i> but at that moment he would have given anything to be back on his ship, where he had a comfortable bed and a reliable cook.  And clean clothes that fit properly that didn’t look and smell like they had been stolen from a barn, unlike the ones he was currently wearing. Between the dirty, baggy, itchy clothes and his equally dirty and itchy new hair, he was almost frustrated enough to trade his honor for some soap and hot water. Not that it mattered, since at the moment he had no honor, no hot water, and no soap. </p><p>Zuko also had no plan when he walked away from Iroh. He said he would try to find something to eat, but how? All he had on him was his Earth Kingdom knife. He could cook with his hands well enough, if he actually managed to catch anything. It wasn’t long before he heard rushing water, and followed the sound to a river. It was clear and shallow with a sandy bottom, perfect for a quick wash. Zuko looked around, listened for any sign of people, then stripped off the peasant clothes and waded in. </p><p>The cool water felt wonderful on his hot and itchy skin. He ducked underneath the surface then came back up, scrubbing himself clean as best he could with sand and water. The freshwater felt soft against his skin compared to ocean water, the current almost playful as it swirled around him. When he had scrubbed his skin raw to get the dirt and sweat off, Zuko gave the clothes the same treatment, scouring them with sand and then rinsing it all out. He did this over and over again, as though he could wash the very essence of <i>dirty stolen Earth peasant clothing</i> out of the coarse fabric. </p><p>Finally he walked out of the river and sat down on the soft grass at its edge. He sat in the open sunlight, feeling it’s warmth on his skin, absorbing Agni’s energy back into his own body and the fire that was his birthright. It was quiet here, with only the sound of the water and the light wind in the trees. Zuko sat in the sun, alone for the first time in weeks, and let his breathing slow down into the pattern he used for meditation. </p><p>“QUUUAAAKKKKK!! Quack quakk quackkk!”<i>Splash. Splash splash splash splash splashsplashsplashsplash</i> </p><p>Zuko startled, his fragile calm broken. He started to scowl out of sheer habit until he realized what had broken his meditation: a family of wild turtle ducks had jumped into a calm pool at the edge of the river, a mother with a string of babies following behind her. </p><p>He hadn’t seen turtle ducks in years. They weren’t common in the Earth Kingdom so these were probably descended from pets that had escaped from a nearby Fire colony. He had no bread or rice to feed them with, even if they were tame enough to let him get close. Instead he sat in the sunlight and watched them splash around and dive under the water for bugs and water weeds. </p><p>Zuko smiled watching them, a rare, shy smile he couldn’t share with another person, not even his uncle. But the little shelled ducklings brought it out and he watched them until they waddled out of the river and disappeared in the grassy bank. By now the breeze had picked up and the sun had shifted. He got dressed in the sun-dried stolen clothes and picked up his knife.   </p><p>
  <i>Never give up without a fight.</i>
</p><p>If he could survive the Northern Sea, then he could survive the wilds of the Earth Kingdom. Zuko got up and went to find a stick he could sharpen that was long enough to try spearing fish with, before his uncle killed himself doing something stupid.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Secret Tunnel revisited</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Apparently, the Secret Tunnel song is known in the Fire Nation, much to Sokka's chagrin. This takes place just before S3 E14, The Boiling Rock.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Aang had learned a lot of new things from a lot of different people since Katara got him out of that iceberg. Now he was learning a whole new level of what ‘socially awkward’ meant, watching Zuko try to get along with the rest of his friends. At first Aang thought it was the whole ‘trying to be friends with people after spending half a year being their worst enemy’ thing, but now he was starting to think it was more of a ‘Hello, Zuko here’ thing to have absolutely no idea how to talk to people without being evil and angry. He did his best to be supportive of the new Zuko but he was still so spirits-blessed <i>awkward</i> when he wasn’t in Sifu Hotman training mode. </p><p>Like the conversation happening right now. Teo and the Duke were talking to Toph, telling her about some of the tunnels they had found exploring in the ruined Air temple. Sokka was listening while Zuko stood nearby, watching the younger kids like he was trying to understand a riddle in a language he barely understood. </p><p>“ . . . so we found this tunnel, I think it was supposed to be a secret tunnel, we almost got lost with all the dead ends, like they kept changing . . .” The Duke said, and Sokka laughed.</p><p>“Were there any wolf-bats or giant badgermoles?” he asked. </p><p>“Um, no, why? Should we look out for them?” Teo asked, his face lighting up at the thought of trying to race dangerous animals down tunnels in his wheelchair. Sokka had already fixed the brakes on the chair twice.  </p><p>“No, it’s just the last time we went through a secret tunnel, there were badgermoles and wolfbats chasing us around,” Sokka said.</p><p>“When did you guys meet badgermoles?” Toph asked.</p><p>“Um, let's see, after the North Pole, before we met you-" Sokka counted out on his fingers the chronological order of their adventures "-we were on our way to Omashu to ask King Bumi to teach Aang earthbending. We ran into some really loopy nomads who didn’t care where they were going as long as they could sing and play with flowers. They told us about a cursed secret tunnel to Omashu, which we took after getting chased by some Fire Nation soldiers nearby. Honestly by the time we got out of there, I would rather have taken my chances with the soldiers then put up with those guys singing their stupid love songs.”</p><p>“Wait, secret tunnels? Love songs? By Omashu? Was this the Cave of Two Lovers?” Toph said, with genuine awe in her voice. “I thought that was a myth. A legend.”</p><p>“It’s a real legend,” Aang told her. He grinned, remembering the light going out in the tunnel with Katara, just before the crystals started to glow. “We went through the tunnels that Oma and Shu made so they could meet each other.” </p><p>“Are you talking about the Omashu Song?” Zuko asked, and everybody turned to look at him. </p><p>“How do you know that song?” Sokka asked, and Aang saw the creeping suspicion in his face. </p><p>“Uncle would sing it sometimes, on music night on the <i>Wani.</i>”  Zuko shrugged. “I never thought it was real.”</p><p>“On the <i>what-i</i>?” Sokka asked. </p><p>“The <i>Wani</i>. My old ship, my uncle had music night about twice a month. He said it was good for the crew’s morale,” Zuko tried to explain. </p><p>“Really? How did the song go? I wonder if it’s the same one we know.” Aang said, before Sokka and Katara could put together 'music night for the crew’s morale’ with ‘the ship that attacked their ice village.’ It was his job as the Avatar to keep the balance, and he was determined to keep the balance in this conversation light and friendly.</p><p>“Well I don’t remember all of it, but it started like this,” Zuko took a breath and actually started to sing.</p><p>“Two lovers, forbidden from one another,<br/>
A war divides their people<br/>
And a mountain kept them apart<br/>
So they built a path to be together,”</p><p>“ . . . that’s all I remember,” he said. Aang was impressed, Zuko actually had a nice singing voice, a bit rough but in tune and with good pitch.</p><p>“No, no no no no,” Sokka groaned and smacked his forehead. </p><p>“What’s wrong? Is that the wrong song?” Zuko asked, looking far too concerned about Sokka’s apparent distress. He hadn’t been around Sokka long enough to know when the Water Tribe boy was really upset, or just being dramatic. Right now he was just being dramatic, because he knew what was coming. Aang tapped the ground quickly, 1-2-3, and felt Toph tap back by raising the rock up against his hand, 1-2-3-4. </p><p>“I think the rest goes something like this,” he said, and took a deep, airbender breath before belting out as loud as he could, “SECRET TUNNEL! SECRET TUNNEL!” </p><p>Then Toph and Teo joined in with him. “Through the mountains! Secret secret secret SECRET TUNNEL!!”</p><p>“And DIEEEEEE!!!!!” Toph finished, making her voice as deep as possible and flinging her arms out for emphasis. Aang, Teo, and the Duke laughed. </p><p>Sokka smacked his forehead again. “Katara, does your offer to permanently end Zuko’s destiny include if he ever sings that stupid tunnel song again?” Sokka called out to his sister. </p><p>“Maybe. But at least his singing is better than your haikus.” Katara replied, choosing to tease her brother instead of threaten Zuko after a glance from Aang. </p><p>“Hey! My haikus are perfectly acceptable and in form - ‘five, seven, then five - syllables mark a haiku -”</p><p>“You like poetry?” Zuko interrupted, surprised at this new aspect of Sokka.</p><p>“Yeah, I can drop a few lines now and then, get some rhymes going when I want to impress someone,” Sokka grinned, puffed out his chest, and gave Zuko a comically exaggerated wink.</p><p>Toph snickered. “Yeah Sokka, your poetry is just as good as your artwork.” </p><p>“Hey! My drawings are perfectly - Toph, why do you have to do that to me, every time?” Sokka groaned and threw up his hands when Toph just laughed at him and waved her hand in front of her blind eyes. </p><p>Katara and Teo joined in, laughing with Toph while Sokka grumbled. Zuko looked over to Aang, his one remaining eyebrow slightly raised, silently asking if this was ok. <i>Tui and La, Zuko, it’s ok to laugh with your friends,</i> Aang thought.<i> Did they try to burn that out of you too?</i>   </p><p>Aang smiled and winked back, and was glad to see the firebender relax slightly as he turned his face away from them and smiled.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. My boyfriend, the Firelord Masseuse</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Nobody ever told Sokka that a day's worth of writing to catch up on political correspondence could hurt his hands and back worse than actual fighting. Luckily, his boyfriend gives the best backrubs.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Pure self-indulgent fluff, and authorial wish fulfillment. After a long day of data entry and typing, I wish I had someone to give me a backrub with that much heat.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Why does hours of writing hurt worse than hours of sword fighting?” Sokka groaned and shook out his wrist. Most of the time he loved his position as the Southern Water Tribe’s personal liaison and ambassador to his boyfriend, Firelord Zuko. He was able to advocate for his people, travel across all the nations, and help rebuild their war-torn world. Plus all the personal benefits of having the hottest boyfriend in the world. </p><p>But right now he was feeling one of the downsides of his position - correspondence. His pile of paperwork was nowhere near what Zuko had to go through on a regular basis, but Zuko had his own scribe to help, and he had been taught to write starting when he was six years old. Sokka had known some writing before leaving the South Pole with Aang, but he’d never had to do more than scratch down a few words. Really, considering how much exposure to the art of brush and paper in his life, it was amazing how good his artwork and handwriting actually were. But even with additional lessons, courtesy of his new post-war position, he had never expected to spend hours writing letters and political correspondence with all of the world’s major leaders and national monarchs. How was anybody back in his ice village supposed to have guessed that someday he’d be writing letters to King Kuei and Chief Arnook, all from the comfort of his permanent guest suite at the palace of Firelord Zuko? </p><p>“I don’t know why, but it does.” Zuko agreed with him, and stretched and cracked his fingers. </p><p>“And my back - I swear this hurts worse. That one spot at the base of my shoulder feels like there’s a knife stuck in it,” Sokka grumbled. </p><p>“This spot here?” Zuko said, and put his hand where the base of his shoulder connected to his spine. He put his strong, inkstained, sword-callused, firebender-hot hand against the knot in Sokka’s back. Sokka groaned in appreciation. Then he groaned even louder when his incredibly strong and hot - literally hot - boyfriend dug his fingers into the knotted muscle and started to rub. He slumped forward to give flameo hotman better access to his back, not that he needed much encouragement to get his hands all over Sokka.<br/>
“Don’t forget my hands.,” Sokka said, and held out his hand like a polar bog shaking a limp paw. </p><p>“Of course not. Here, let me kiss it and make it better.” Zuko took the offered hand and kissed it. Then he took each finger and gently squeezed and rolled the joints, up to the wrist, and massaged the tendon and muscle in Sokka’s forearm. When he worked his way to his shoulders Sokka leaned forward into a hug. Hugs were good. Warm firebender hugs from sympathetic, sexy boyfriends were better. Then Zuko whispered the sexiest words in existence.</p><p>“Would you like a backrub?”</p><p> In response Sokka nuzzled his neck behind his good ear, and kissed his cheek. Then he took off his lightweight blue silk shirt and flopped face down on the couch. Zuko also slipped off his shirt before he settled in for a serious massage, rubbing and digging into muscles tight and pinched from hours of the repetitive motions of writing with firebender warmth in his hands. Soon Sokka’s groans and whimpers of appreciation faded, then were replaced with light snores. </p><p>Zuko smiled at his sleeping boyfriend, his hair down and drooling into a pillow. Sokka had once joked that if he got tired of ruling the Fire Nation, he could always retire and take up working as a masseuse instead. It was a pleasant fantasy to indulge in, but what was really important was how much Sokka melted under his hands when he did this. He stroked his boyfriend's hair and enjoyed just looking at him for a few more minutes. The paperwork could wait.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is a collection of short stories, quiet moments, coming of age stories, reflections, and family moments for the characters in Avatar and Korra. I've already got a list with 15 ideas, but I'm open to new prompts too if anybody would like a story.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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